Hair loses or changes its natural color and its gloss or shine over time and in particular under the effect of external influences such as light or atmospheric pollutants. For this reason, hair coloring agents are widely used, these being used either in hairdressing salons or at home.
For permanent, intense colorations with suitable fastness properties, use is made of so-called oxidation coloring agents. Such coloring agents usually contain oxidation dye precursors, so-called developer components and coupler components, which together form the actual dyes under the effect of oxidizing agents or atmospheric oxygen. Oxidation coloring agents are characterized by excellent, long-lasting color results. For temporary colorations, use is usually made of coloring or toning agents which contain so-called substantive dyes as the coloring component.
Besides dyeing, many consumers also have the very specific desire to lighten their own hair color or to become blonde, since a blonde hair color is considered to be attractive and fashionable. If substrates are to be lightened or even bleached, the dyes coloring the substrate are usually oxidatively decolorized using suitable oxidizing agents, such as hydrogen peroxide.
When dyeing hair—particularly when dyeing hair at home—the problem occurs that natural color nuances are completely covered, so that multi-tonal dyeing is difficult to achieve.
In order to give the hair a more natural appearance, it is known in the prior art to partially decolorize dyed hair by the targeted application of oxidizing agents. The hair sections (“strands”) to which the oxidizing agents are applied are thus at least partially bleached, resulting in a multi-tonal hair color. In this case, the oxidizing agent is applied using a brush or a wand, the hair that is not to be treated optionally being protected by aluminum foil or a so-called “highlights cap” prior to the decolorizing.
Although this type of application solves the problem of dyeing hair in a manner that looks as natural as possible, it nevertheless only allows the application of “highlights”. For “lowlights”, that is to say darker sections, subsequent dyeing would have to take place. In the scenarios described above, therefore, a time-consuming second decolorizing and dyeing step would be necessary, which takes place after the first dyeing. Particularly in the case of home use, therefore, all of the hair would first have to be colored before the user can apply “highlights” or “lowlights”. This is perceived by many consumers as time-consuming and also as frustrating, since the main color-changing step takes place at the start and is merely “corrected” in a second step.
It is therefore desirable to provide a method which enables multi-tonal dyeing in one dyeing step. The dyeing of the hair should be accompanied by the creation of “highlights” or “lowlights”, so that a result is visible immediately after rinsing out the coloring agent.